With ‘dawn of the nine’ the legendary Swedish metallers Unleashed return in a blaze of fire and fury, hell-bent on slaying the pretenders to the throne and reclaiming their gnarled and blackened crown. ‘Dawn of the nine’ is, remarkably, the band’s twelfth full-length outing and yet such is the sense of malevolent intent conjured by Fredrik Folkare’s magnificent production that they sound like a band just starting out. Brutal, honest death metal is the name of the game here and it is impressive to say the least that unleashed have so successfully carved out a twenty-six year career without even a hint of compromise. Offering up ten tracks of crushing metal, ‘dawn of the nine’ is Unleashed at their very best and an album not to be missed.
There’s no scene-setting intro with ‘dawn of the nine’, no subtle moment of clam before the storm, just a headlong plunge into devilish riffs, pummelling drums and, of course, Johnny Hedlund’s unflinching vocals which draw together elements of John Tardy’s guttural growl and Tom G Warrior’s patented grunts. It’s a relentless opening and it perfectly sets the tone of the album – unflinching brutality from a band who have built their career on slaughtering the opposition. ‘They came to die’ impressively matches the stately grandeur of epic tales of war in the classical world with the more brutal reality of conflict only for the doom-laden ‘defenders of Midgard’ to bind-side the listener with its doom-laden and atmospheric intro and brutal groove. This is classic Unleashed and as Tomas’ riffing gives way to some truly epic soloing, so the listener becomes increasingly engrossed. Relentlessly brutal but disappointing lyrically, ‘where is your god now’ is a cracking track but the central lyrical conceit is one that informs countless fledgling death metal acts with a quarter of the talent on display here. Fortunately things get back on track with ‘the bolt thrower’, a menacing, hulking track that dips its toe into Celtic Frost, Sabbath and Venom for inspiration, ‘the bolt thrower’ is one of the album’s many dark highlights.
Having slowed the pace with the previous track, Unleashed pick things up with the brutal sturm und drang of ‘let the hammer fly’, a blood soaked exhortation to battle that is as gruesome a death metal track as you could possibly wish for. A blackened death metal monstrosity, ‘Where the churches once burned’ is the sound of evil made flesh roaming the earth with hyper-speed guitars coming up against the mechanistic drums of Anders. It’s an album highlight and it does much to underscore the variety on offer on this album as the band roam the extreme metal hinterlands picking and choosing elements at will with which to augment their none-more-brutal sound. With an atmospheric conclusion rounding out ‘where churches once burned’, ‘Land of the thousand lakes’ neatly segues out of it and slowly builds into a brutal, mid-tempo assault that steamrollers over everything in its path. The two tracks, paired together like this, neatly showcase Unleashed in both black and death metal guises and the contrast helps to keep the album interesting throughout as well as unflinchingly violent. The title track is an interesting, slow and more thoughtful piece of work that benefits from ethereal lead work and a sense of mystery that borders on the progressive. It is both unexpected and entirely welcome, and whilst the track mutates into one of the album’s most doom laden tracks, it is also one of the most fascinating pieces of work here. The album concludes with ‘welcome the son of Thor!’ a stunningly aggressive and powerful track that shows just how much bands like Amon Amarth owe to Unleashed in terms of inspiration.
Unleashed are legends for a reason and you don’t carve out so lengthy a career without having the skill to support it. Musically Unleashed don’t put a foot wrong – elements of death, black and doom metal all inform the extremity on offer here – whilst the slight lyrical misstep of ‘where is your god now’ is only problematic in that it lacks the intelligence and refinement evidenced on the other tracks. Even by Unleashed’s impressive standards, ‘dawn of the nine’ is a stunning album and fans and newcomers alike will find plenty to admire in this brutal, adrenalin-charged outing.
